The APENFT art collection and what it teaches about investing in digital art

APENFT Asia editorial team · Fact-checked against official sources

What the APENFT art collection is

APENFT was registered in Singapore in March 2021 with a clear pitch: register world-class artworks as NFTs on the blockchain and connect traditional art with crypto. The project was built on TRON and Ethereum, with artwork files stored on the BitTorrent File System (BTFS). In October 2025 it rebranded to AINFT and shifted its focus toward AI infrastructure, but the art collection is still listed in the white paper’s appendix, “The AINFT Art Collection”.

That appendix is our primary source. Where it gives a price, or where reputable press reported one, we include it. Where nobody has published a figure, we say so. The white paper also claims the collection is “valued at over RMB 200 million”. That is the project’s own estimate and has not been independently appraised as far as we can find.

The tracker below shows the collection as listed, alongside live data for the wider NFT sector and NFT-related tokens.

The works, one by one

Picasso, Femme nue couchée au collier

The headline piece is a 1932 Picasso depicting Marie-Thérèse Walter. Justin Sun’s JUST NFT Fund bought it in April 2021 for a reported US$20 million, according to coverage citing Bloomberg. The white paper lists its NFT on a TRON TRC-721 contract, TCzUYnFSwtH2bJkynGB46tWxWjdTQqL1SG. This is the textbook example of a physical masterpiece paired with an on-chain token. If you want to know what that token technically is, our TRC-721 explainer walks through it.

Andy Warhol, Three Self-Portraits: the “Warhol NFT”

Bought for about US$2 million in April 2021, the 1986 Warhol is the piece that most directly touched the token. Its NFT was sold on Binance NFT in June 2021 for 2.8 million BUSD. Holders then voted (vote opened 7 July, passed 10 July 2021) to use the proceeds for a buyback, and on 16 July 2021 about 1.03 trillion NFT tokens were bought with 2.52M BUSD and burned. The white paper still lists the Warhol in its appendix, so it is not fully clear how the Foundation treats the physical work today. The burn is covered in more detail in the NFT tokenomics breakdown.

Beeple, Ocean Front and the ABUNDANCE set

Justin Sun won Ocean Front for US$6 million in March 2021 and donated it to APENFT. The collection also lists a Beeple set of five pieces with physical components: ABUNDANCE, GIGACHAD, REBIRTH, BIOLOGICAL COLLECTIBLE and JANUARY 1ST 2021. No purchase price for that set has been published that we could verify.

Pak, 1,686 cubes from The Fungible Collection

In the Sotheby’s and Nifty Gateway sale of 12 to 14 April 2021, Sun bought 1,686 “Cube” units from Pak’s The Fungible Collection. This is the “Sotheby’s APENFT” connection many people search for. One detail is often reported wrongly: he did not buy “The Switch”, a separate Pak piece from the same sale.

Artzybasheff, Cattelan and TPunk #3442

Boris Artzybasheff’s The Computer in Society, a 1965 TIME magazine cover, is listed as an NFT in the collection, price unverified. Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian, the banana taped to a wall, was bought by Sun at Sotheby’s New York in November 2024 for US$6.2 million including fees (a US$5.2 million hammer price). It appears in the white paper’s collection list. Finally, TPunk #3442 “Joker”, a TRON-native pixel avatar, was bought for 120 million TRX (about US$10.5 million at the time) on 31 August 2021 and donated to APENFT.

The Giacometti Le Nez dispute

In November 2021, Justin Sun bought Alberto Giacometti’s sculpture Le Nez at Sotheby’s New York for US$78.4 million and announced it as a donation to the APENFT Foundation. For a while it was presented as the crown of the collection.

The story later became a legal one. In February 2025, Sun sued collector David Geffen, alleging that his former art adviser Sydney Xiong had sold Le Nez without authority, and stating in the filing that “APENFT has never held title”. In April 2025, Geffen countersued, alleging that APENFT traded the sculpture in January 2024 for US$10.5 million plus two paintings. We could not confirm how, or whether, the case has been resolved. Le Nez does not appear in the white paper’s latest collection appendix.

Does the art back the NFT token?

This is the most common misunderstanding. The art collection and the NFT coin are linked by brand and by history, but there is no verified mechanism that gives coin holders a claim on the artworks. The token is described in the white paper as the project’s governance token. Its allocation includes 20 percent for “NFT work purchases” and 30 percent for artist partners, but that describes how tokens were set aside, not a redemption right.

The one direct, measurable effect came from the Warhol resale, which funded the July 2021 burn. Apart from that, the value of the coin moves with the crypto market, exchange liquidity and news about the project, not with art auction results. If you want to follow the coin itself, use our live APENFT price page.

How tokenized art actually works

There are two very different things under the “digital art” label, and they carry different risks.

For born-digital works, check where the metadata and file are stored. APENFT used BTFS, a decentralized storage network. Note that btfs.io now redirects to a differently named project, which is a reminder to verify that links still resolve rather than assuming they always will. For buying and selling individual pieces on TRON, see our AINFT marketplace review, which is honest about how quiet it has become.

How to invest in digital art without fooling yourself

Investing in digital art is closer to collecting than to trading a coin. Each piece is unique, prices are set by a handful of buyers, and there is no order book to sell into. These steps will not make it safe, but they will make it less blind.

How valuation works, and why it is shaky

Traditional art is priced through auctions, dealers and expert appraisals. Digital art borrows some of that, which is why Sotheby’s and Christie’s sales were such big news in 2021. But most NFTs trade only on marketplaces, and quoted “floor prices” can be thin or inflated by wash trading. A collection’s headline valuation, such as the project’s own “over RMB 200 million” figure, is not the same as what a buyer would pay tomorrow.

Beyond buying: the Art Dream Fund

Buying famous works was only half of the original plan. APENFT also announced a US$100 million “Art Dream Fund” aimed at supporting artists who wanted to bring their work on chain. The announcement came as a press release, and we have not found a public report showing how much of that fund was actually deployed or which artists received support. Treat the headline figure as a stated commitment, not as money confirmed to have been spent. The token allocation in the white paper points in the same direction, with 30 percent reserved for artist partners, but again that is a budget line, not an audited outcome.

Why the collection still matters

Even with the rebrand to AINFT and the move toward AI agents, the collection remains the most concrete thing the project bought in its NFT era. It shows a real attempt to bring blue-chip art onto TRON, and it left a measurable mark on the token through the Warhol burn. It also shows the limits: unclear title in the Le Nez case, a marketplace with little activity, and a coin whose price is not tied to the art.

If you want the bigger picture, read our APENFT history timeline and the profile of Justin Sun and his role, since nearly every major purchase passed through him. And before you buy anything with “APENFT” or “AINFT” in its name, check the safety notes in our APENFT safety guide.